Pakistan’s Shields Suddenly Step Aside, Placing It on Terrorism Listing<br />But the recent gray-listing is explicitly focused on two groups<br />that the United States says are linked to terrorism against India The groups, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniyat — suspected of being fronts for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks — operated openly until the Pakistani government officially outlawed them in February, barely a week before the international community met to determine whether to list Islamabad.<br />Pakistani officials say China dropped its objection to Islamabad’s listing last week<br />as Beijing lobbied for the vice chairmanship of the Financial Action Task Force.<br />And other officials pointed out that Pakistani officials say<br />that since they outlawed the two groups last month, they have seized their ambulances, schools and other assets.<br />As the Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure over the last year, two camps have become apparent within Pakistan: those urging<br />that Islamabad sever ties with militant groups and repair relations with Washington, and those who say that the alliance with China is enough to weather a fallout with the West.<br />"The international community has consistently expressed its longstanding concerns about ongoing deficiencies in Pakistan’s implementation of its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism finance regime."<br />That two of Pakistan’s strongest allies could join, or at least accept, American efforts to isolate the country has roiled the government in Islamabad and the military.
